In what will end up being a win-win-win situation, officers of Kauai Hospice get their valley and mountain views back, leaders of The Storybook Theatre of Hawaii get $10,000, and members of the Zonta Club of Kauai fulfill their service mission times two.
Zonta Club members selected Kauai Hospice as recipient of their service-project volunteerism, with nearly 30 members, spouses and supporters coverging on the Wallis House in Isenberg Tract subdivision in Lihu’e, where Kauai Hospice offices are located.
They spent four hours cleaning the inside and outside of the house, and cutting back brush so that Hospice staffers could once again enjoy expansive mountain and valley views from their offices.
For participating in The Friends of Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation program of community service, leaders of the Zonta Club of Kauai get $10,000 to give to the nonprofit entity of their choice.
That’s where The Storybook Theatre of Hawaii comes in.
That entity’s early childhood development program, which teaches preschoolers how to tell stories and write stories, will get the funds, said Katie Beer, chair of the Zonta Club of Kauai’s service committee.
The Weinberg grant is for poor and needy people, and the Storybook program qualifies because two-thirds of the schools the story-telling and story-writing instruction is delivered to are Head Start preschools, Beer said.
The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is well known for its large donations to capital-improvement projects that must carry the name of the late foundation philanthropists, like The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Senior Apartments in the old Lihue Theater on Kuhio Highway, Beer said.
The Friends of The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation program rewards community-service organizations for doing what they do best — community service — and allowing them to give twice by giving clubs money to donate to their favorite causes, Beer explained.
“Everybody wants the money, but very few can come up with a service project,” Beer said.
The Friends program requires a hands-on service project, participated in by at least 25 people over at least four hours. The Zonta Club’s service committee chose Kauai Hospice as recipient of the hands-on community service, and also chose The Storybook Theatre of Hawaii to receive the funds.
Kauai Hospice officials asked the club to clean up the Wallis House, named for the late doctor at Wilcox Memorial Hospital who donated his home to the hospital. Up until Kauai Hospice moved in, the home was used by the hospital for nurses’ quarters.
“We cleaned inside and out, basically,” scrubbing floors and walls, washing drapes and rugs, and taking away literally tons of greenwaste cut from the yard, Beer said.
Thomas Noyes, husband of club member Pat Griffin, did major work with a single chainsaw, Beer said.
Phil Clark, executive director of Kauai Hospice, was most enthusiastic to get his view back, while Gina Kaulukukui, bereavement care coordinator, put it another way.
Hospice volunteers and staff go into homes and care for people on a regular basis, Kaulukukui said, and she appreciated someone coming into their home (office) and caring for them.
“Zonta is honored to participate in this program,” Beer said.
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis may be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
